Beans a la Talia

This is my version of fast food. Much healthier than a Whopper or Chicken Nuggets.

As I’ve stated earlier, most Sunday evenings I’ll cook something larger and eat it for dinner for the next 3 nights. That allows me to always have something healthy in the fridge when I get home from the gym starving for dinner and then I don’t down half a jar of almond butter cause I do have something to eat. Wait…maybe that’s where my almond butter went. (By the way-2 weeks after buying my latest jar of almond butter, I still have half a jar left-so according to my schedule it will take me 4 weeks to get through this jar, 1 week more that the previous jar. I’m getting better! Waa hoo!!) Anyway, coming back from Cleveland at 8 on Monday night messed up my schedule…and my mind. I didn’t have to worry about dinner that night (packed a delicious pb&j back at home) but had no groceries and nothing for dinner for the next few nights. I was too tired to cook (8 is LATE for me…I’m old) and was barely able to make a venture to the grocery store down the street. So, I had to rely on myself and how I was feeling the next night to make dinner.

Tuesday nights I do tempo runs which are hard and very much energy consuming. I eat a little extra before I go to the gym to run them (spoonful of almond butter…) to help me through them, but no matter what I get home famished. Days like these are days when I am glad that I have an already made healthy dinner in the fridge waiting for me. But this past Tuesday, I had ingredients waiting for me, not something ready to eat. Ugh. I could have easily gotten take out (which probably would have taken longer than cooking because every delivery person thinks I live on 6th street, not 5th street and it takes about 20 minutes to relay the correct info. Hummus Place-as much as I love you-you NEVER know where we live!!!) but I stick to myself when I say I never get takeout. Once every other month, maybe. I had some stuff in the freezer-lentejas and white bean and kale soup-but because I hadn’t taken it out to start thawing before I went to the gym, I would take FOREVER to thaw. I didn’t have forever. My stomach was going to eat itself. And my stomach isn’t very tasty to my stomach. I did, however, buy ingredients for a dinner that would take about 20 minutes from start to finish and give me dinner for the next night and half a dinner for the night after. And like I said earlier, I would much rather make my own dinner than order in any night no matter how exhausted or hungry I was. I was so exhausted and hungry, but I stuck to my guns and made my own dinner!

This little concoction is exactly what it sounds like-a little concoction. My roommate Talia made it up one day and it is what you put into it and you can make it whatever you want. She took a box of chopped tomatoes and a can of white beans and threw together whatever spices looked good that night. I took a bite when she first made it and it was sooo good!!! I begged her and begged her to tell me how she made it. She told me the first time I asked-the begging was just for dramatic effect. She has no secrets from me. Well, she told me and I think I made it 2 nights later. And since I’ve probably made it 5 times with different amounts of spices (I NEVER measure) and some added ingredients here and there. It’s kinda foolproof and kinda silly cause it’s not really a recipe, but it’s good, and essentially healthy fast food.

So Tuesday I made it, starving, famished, sweaty. But it was worth it and my stomach didn’t eat itself. If it did, I wouldn’t have a stomach anymore. Thanks stomach for eating my dinner instead!!

I took another picture halfway through eating it cause you could see the beans better. It’s a nasty picture, but shows the entire dish better. At least I didn’t slobber on it, so it’s not too nasty.

1) My absolute favorite food is Nutella. I love it, but it has trans fat. However, the european version doesn’t. Another reason to get my tush back to Europe asap. My absolute least favorite food is mushrooms. I’ve never been able to eat them or anything cooked with them. One of my mom’s Christmas specialties is a tomato and mushroom casserole. I can barely be in the house when she makes it cause I makes me gag. ugh.

2) I was an environmental studies major in college and am applying to go to grad school in the fall of 2009 to get my masters in Environmental Public Policy. I’ll go anywhere in the country as long as I like the program and I’m sooo excited!

3) I have 2 scars. Both in the same place-my left knee-and both from the same accident but at different times. I went to the most fantastic camp in Algonquin Park, Ontario for 11 years and there was this huge rock that always stuck out on a hill that I would walk down multiple times a day. From ages 9-19 everytime I went down that hill I always jumped off that rock instead of walking down it or around it. I’ve tripped and fallen of it from jumping at least 40 times over those 11 years, twice leaving me with scars on my left knee. If I go back, I will jump off that rock. I’ll never learn.

4) I ice skated competitively till 8th grade, ran track in 8th grade, played tennis in high school, rowed my freshman year in college and played rugby 2 years in college and now I’m a runner. I guess I’ve always been an athlete but have never found the right sport for me…until now I guess!

5) When I lived in Spain after college, I had no TV and no dvd player on my old school laptop. I did, however, download 103 episodes of Friends from my fellow English Teacher and friend Lucy’s computer onto mine. I watched all those episodes countless times (really, a ton) and know them all by heart. Everytime one of “my” episodes comes on tv, I can quote the entire thing. My favorite episode is “the one with the last night” where Rachel moves out of Monica’s apartment and Chandler moves it and Rachel and Monica fight about the phone pen. I die laughin every time.

mmmm looks good. I always make a huge batch of brown rice at the beginning of the week to use throughout. Thats the most time consuming thing to make, but everything else you can add to it is easy. If Im really crunched for time, Ill just add some garbonzo beans and salsa.

Don’t starve after the gym! Take some almond butter to-go packets! you can order online at http://www.barneybutter.com they are 90 calories each. I also love almond butter with Nutella. NO trans fat in Barney Butter and it’s also no-stir (unlike your other almond butter) and goes great with Nutella (then you only have to use 1/2 the Nutella)! (I also love grilled Barney Butter banana honey sandwiches on whole grain bread). Other ‘treats’ on my website. 🙂

Take care Betsy! I always love reading and hearing your new concoctions! Too bad I can’t give you my jar of almond butter- I’m using it up, but it’s taking forever- and I’m craving PB!! Almond butter just doesn’t do it for me!

I love Pomi! I haven’t had it in ages. I wish I could find it in Canada. =(

I gave up nutella as soon as I found out it had trans fats in it. It was so hard, but I guess I had to fare well. I found a really awesome non-trans fat version in Italy, but they don’t sell it here. =( There’s always the option of home made though.